a bit wet....

after all the rain yesterday, we were a bit worried - think i mentioned the flood warning?

when i got down to the stables this morning the river was well over it's bank, not quite as far as the cattle grid but almost, and the muck heap was developing ponds from underneath.....

i tried to take a photo, but only had the phone and it was just not quite light enough (mind, i realised later I should have changed the setting as well)

anyway, here's the afterwards:

so the horses stayed in until about 1.30, and i went down after lunch to muck out again and we got them in about 3 (including some grass on the lawn, which they appreciated!)

at least the pond in the lane meant that i could get molly's feet washed out without scrubbing! an advantage! plus she can't avoid the puddle which is good for her getting used to going through them! We did a deliberate diversion via that for the purpose!

edited to add: for some reason,the add video button is NOT available, booo - ah! sorted, went back to old settings... help was helpful!

lunging in the rain...

We are mad, of course, but it had to be done.

We were glad we'd decided to keep them in today - didn't stop raining and there are now ponds in the paddock

we knew there was a free spell in teh arena from 2 - 3 - as it happens, everyone else must have cancelled as there was no one there when we went over early - not surprised, it had lashed down most of the day.

So molly was lunged with her waterproof luminous exercise sheet under the roller, and Charlie was lunged with his lightweight outdoor on! They both needed the work.

but we decided to keep them in tomorrow as well...


eventually got home about 4 (I'd been out since about 11) - and no sooner got in when my mate texted to say we're now on flood alert.  bummer.  So we've got our fingers and everything else crossed....  

rode my horse!

I would have to look back a few weeks to see when i last rode - that was the day gaynor & I rode round the big fields opposite the main yard.

today we didn't go as far .. just out of our gate and round the big field behind the stables & paddock.

We did wonder afterwards if we should have gone the other way...

it's very hilly, so we decided to set off left on the flat, then up the hill and pallningn to go right along the fence line at the top then back down.. choosing always the least steep bits to go down.

all relatively ok until we did the final left to head to the bottom by the track .. molly was startign to nap to go  up the park (as if she were going back to her previous yard) so i decided to get off rather than have that battle.. 

we had in any event decided to just do some minor schooling before we went back.. (if only to add time on to how long we were out...)


i was doing some in hand work whilst G did a large circle . her horse threw a bit of a tantrum as molly moved away from him... essentially, panic caused by insecurity, G thinks...so happily i heard her shouting for me to come back, when i turned round she was doing well to sit the bucks.. which stopped as soon as charlie realised we were coming back!

so we gave up and went back in...

next time, we will go another way...

course neither of them have done anything for a few weeks

but - if the weather is ok, we are going to use the arena tomorrow, have arranged it!  have confirmed the time it is not booked by anyone else, and have said we will be there! 

But hey, i rode!

what will tomorrow bring?

fair weather or foul?  i haven't looked, but if it stays like today, we may manage to get our horses ridden! i hope so!

now - what might cause a horse's poo to go runny when it hasn't been before?  i've always thought of it as a stress thing... but i don't think molly is stressed particularly

so tell me...

before i poo picked the field, it was not raining.  after i'd poo picked the field, it was not raining.

whilst i was poo picking the field ....

you guessed it, it was raining, i got soaked.

and it was blowing hard and that got worse.

late meeting tonight, so gaynor did molly this evening, and apparently molly blotted her coypbook on the foot lifting thing...bad girl.

 

thrush improving

the near fore is starting to look a lot better; the off fore still not so good but no doubt will get there.

but molly's starting to be a bit of a B about the foot picking up thing - with her front feet, where previously she didn't want her backs picked up before she was started on no bute..- so i think she's fed up wtih teh process.

tough, i say!  i carry on!

but it's tough on my back as well, bend down, lift hoof, scrub etc etc... and all repeated several times!

we/ve pretty much given up any idea of doing anything much through the week - I know I COULD take it out of my working day, but i am expected to be here ... 

odd, when i was an employed person i used to think about going in to work late having done something with my horse...

now i am a self employed person, i am conscious of the need to be at my desk in case the phone rings/an email arrives...

odd that.  It wouldn't actually matter, no different than if i were out at a meeting, or in court, of whatever.. and it's very easy to make the time up, of course!.

USDF getting with the program

link in title..

now we need BD to do the same..

in the meantime, someone found Racinet on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bNpT5wajps

and Elen petushkova with Pepel .. not heard of them before, but well worth watching

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iukrYhnw8n0

an in season mare sharing with a gelding

is much more troublesome than one sharing with other mares...

went down mid morning, thinking, get her in, get her ready and go over to the arena..

not a good plan

firstly charlie went round the corner so molly coudlnt' see him, which didn't impress her, and even when he came back, she woudln't settle and wanted back out again.. then the wind started getting up such that things were blowing about .. it became not worth it!

then gaynor said she'd been very up a height and rude this morning, which she's not normally - i'd wondered why her breakfast hadn't been finished - and went off bucking and flying round the paddock...

so out she went again....a  mare in that mood just isn't worth the grief, as we'd both get wound up!


tcha.

 

tchah...

is what i think of today.

partner was meant to have riding lesson this morning.  had been texting RI to confirm and not heard back... just as we got in the car, received text, had i not received her text earlier in the week?  cancelled...strangles scare on her yard.  sometimes, texts don't get through.

so then partner wanted to do various things involving sorting out her stuff to go to dry cleaners, so did that, then friend rang and go for haylage please as there's so little grass left they need more ...

time we did that it started to rain...

what i SHOULD have done, once i knew partners lesson cancelled, was go do something with molly then.. but i didn't...because was wanted to stay at home and help with the sorting...

it was raining properly time i got lunch and got down there ... but warm! poo picking in the rain is fun (not) but found charlie's missing shoe... and the wind was picking up when i left ...

supposed to be not so bad tomorrow...


i reckon, we'll not get a lot done this winter!  have i said that before?

i finally remembered

to apply the mud fever prevention stuff... i think i hadn't done it as until yesterday the mud hadn't got deeper than the top of her feet! IV Horse mud fever prevention, excellent stuff, and then after applying i wipe my hands off down her neck and that prevents the mud sticking there as well...

we're hoping for good weather tomorrow to ride but i don't think i'm very optimistic about it..

windy ...

to replace the rain (but it's still raining over the pennines, so we still need to have some concerns on the flood situation and feel sorry for those in cumbria) 


I went down really early this morning, cos i'd got up early! and they were out whilst it was still dark ... mucked out and poo picked the field...apparently gaynor's dogs went a bit mad as i arrived, and she thought i was a bit mad being that early, but hey!


and my other thoguht about the wind .. it was so warm, it could have been the hot air blowing out of the FEI...


not at all convinced by that statement, and not at all sure what world horse welfare can do ....they rescue abused etc. horses and do a good job on that.. but deal with rollkur?  um.


http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/397/291879.html


and as for allowing bute in competition ...


http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/397/292010.html


words fail me...

but the FEI vice president is against that:



http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/news/397/291988.html


and quite right too!

we are on tenterhooks

because the river in this picture has burst its banks and when i left was up to the cattle grid...

a long way to go before we need panic and get the horses out, and the probabilities are that we won't have to .. but still, very scary!  The trees nearest the river are underwater..

it's all come down from the pennines; if it stops raining there and doesnt' rain here, we're fine.  if it carries on raining there, and then rains some more here, we might not be!

fingers crossed all.

FEI statement on rollkur

link in title...

Hope this is not just puff, and that we will in fact see this stopped at competitions, and that WHW are in fact involved

Anyway, so much for the news...

when I went down to the yard this morning, it was still blowing the remnant of last nights horrendous gales, so out she went into the field with Charlie...of course, time I got home (after poo picking as well as mucking out) the wind had dropped...isn't that the way!

i was right

when i looked at the mist this morning and thought, it's gonna rain... and it did.  it had been forecast, but i'm never wholly convinced by those...

rained all morning in torrents, bit of a break late afternoon and started again in time for us to bring them in.

the spray bottle I'm using for the spray for molly's feet has died. ... 

and in between, wrestling with a software problem that resulted in my having to zip the entire folder onto a usb stick and post to the company so they can have a look at it - they said, have you installed anything new?  answer, no i haven't..

well exercised

me, that is, if not molly so much.

muck out etc; poo pick field; then joint effort removing the remains of some haylage, wewon't do that one again and now see why YM & YO don't like that!  

finally took molly out for longlining inthe field.  not for too long, probably no moare than about 15 minutes, ensuring i had control and direction. Charlie spent the time running about, or standing at the gate as if we'd suddenly reappear!  not sure he quite twigs that the mare walking round the field on longlines is his friend who hasn't gone far...

then after tea we went back into Durham with the new camera on different settings, think we've got much better pics.

so shattered again as well!  but a nice change from our normal weekend nights!

wind and rain

it was a howling gale this morning and forecast to last the day, but didn't... trouble was, time we got there this afternoon, my friend couldnt' ride as her youngest was ill (teething!) and then it rained...loads of daylight, but rain...pah.

i decided on the flexions again, as if i'd tried to set off i would have lost the light before i got back, time it stopped raining..

so stood molly on the hardstanding outside the stable.

she was very square... and we eventually got a down .. then a second ... but then she decided she liked that but didn't want to do any of the others.

but i was pleased to get the "down", anyway ...and she was standing still!

this evening, we went into durham, having learnt that there was a light show.. a few installation artists with various light effects here and there.. the best was the front of the cathedral, but neither camera has caught it all very well...partners new one woudl have done but it was only bought this afternoon and we're still getting to know it, so didn't turn out at all.. mine, dull and you dont get the full effect ... but here's one, and another of the cathedral from the other side of the river looking ghostly 

and this was in a shop window, very effective...

another "doh" moment...

so i'd started splitting her feed between tea and breakfast .. went down this morning and put breakfast in .. Doh!  can't work her. Doh!  revert to previous practice of no breakfast! (or breakfast after ... depending on the weather) - haynet whilst she has her massage will do! 
can't believe i did that.

poo picked the field instead...

roofer...

man was supposed to turn up this morning to sort out some missing tiles on our roof, so rather than take advantage of the reasonable weather this morning, i was home by 0730 so as to be sure to be ready as and when he arrived.

he didn't arrive.

pah.

went round to his boss's this pm ... i love seeing that man apologise! :-)

and scrubbed molly's feet out as the rain started, then on the way home remembered i'd left washing on the line! oops! 

and yes, jean, gaynor found her keys, in the dark! very impressed with that!

crutches in the dark...

are scary things, especially when accompanied by disembodied torches and voices...

happily, not mine or my friend's but a friend of hers who was helping her find her keys in the field .... coming back, i had molly tied up outside cleaning her feet and all we could see was light and hear voice and crutches on the lane - scary all round, molly got away (but didn't go far) and charlie was upset in his stable.. but he was in the bad books anyway, having lost gaynor whilst out for a ride and come galloping back to talk to molly. and thank the lord he did, as the alternative was EITHER the other side of the lane through to under the bridge, where he can't get through OR the cattle grid! 

He'd been a bad lad on the way back from his hack, the fault of molly who'd shouted for him, and in the course of trying to turn himself inside out slipped on some soft ground so gaynor lost her stirrup and came off; in course of that, she lost her house keys, so that's what they'd been trying to find.


I went down this morning with a view to doing something, but the drive down to the yard was accompanied by the windscreen wipers going, so turned them out - and guess what?  it stopped again!


must sort out the batteries for my head torch, for purposes of washing and spraying feet in the dark.  There is an outside light, but you end up in your own shadow anyway.


Happily, i already owned some milton, so mild solution made up in old milk bottle and decanted into already available and empty spray thingy.

in hand along the lane

only for 10 minutes, if that, but it was good, both reins, straight lines only (no room for circles) and a little bit of move sideways.  We haven't done this for a while, so didn't want to do too much; then tried for flexions on the hardstanding.  At least she stood still!  but i couldn't get her to stand square very well, but we did get a couple of "downs" at least.

That was after the vet had been to do her annual booster.  

And she has thrush; so must dig out milton and make a solution to spray on, having scrubbed feet, every night....

coold

i know, it's colder in scotland..

too cold this morning, and freezing fog this evening! frozen tap this morning so i've taken the hose off tonight, save that freezing as well....

doh! again...

went to stables after going shopping ... did a lot of work .. friend came out .. molly almost ready ... plan to ride out together... friend's l/l arrived ... stayed a while ...then by the time that was all over it started raining and there wasn't really time to go anywhere whilst the light still held ....  :-(

yes I COULD have ridden myself .. but still not happy about trying to ride out on my own ....

but we have the answer to the arena booking system, at least..

doh ....

we didn't know we had to book the arena.... walked over there about 2.30 or so with a view to lunging .. lesson going on ... are supposed to book?  not sure, have emailed for guidance.

so walked back, being overtaken AGAIN on the bridge with a blind bend ahead - this time, something came round the blind bend, thankfully no one was going too fast but they're all total d****s there....

thought i'd try lunging on the field before we went back, but that was either flat out or eat .. not good

by the time we got back, COULD have lunged in the grazing field, BUT had run out of time as had promised to be home... 

still, as least she got some exercise and Charlie got more practice at being left on his own!

and they both ended up in very early as i had to go, and my friend wasn't going to be able to come out again as her OH was going out so no one left to childmind....they're a shade TOO young to be left for even 10 minutes...

but, wondering if may be possible to work in their grazing field even with the other one in? might try it and see what happens....

lost feeling in fingers

this morning whilst mucking out and poo picking paddock... too cold to do anything that might involve standing still whilst molly worked round me, LOL. time to find the winter gloves, i think!  winter is upon us...hopefully be able to get something done tomorrow!.

sorry caroline

but we had a lovely day here - your rain has just arrived here.  Hope you have a dry day tomorrow.


But i didn't do anything with Molly this morning as i got up a shade later than i should have - that, and she was MUCH keener to be out than otherwise...

the sun and the moon

this morning whilst i was mucking out: 

and then? lunging, i thought. but all molly wanted to do was whizz around, and since i was not an arena i thought better of that and did some little in hand up the lane.. i hadn't put the ordinary reins on, and just used my body and was actually relatively pleased with the result!.So that's something to improve on with a proper job if the weather is ok tomorrow...

completely off topic for my second post of the day

UK supreme court on TV

dry, unless you're into the subject matter, but it's actually an interesting and important case on executive power.

this morning

my thought was some in hand work up the lane and back.  but before that, of course, she has to have her massage pad on.

so puts that on and sets it away, muck out round her .. half way through - the heavens opened!

that was that idea knocked on the head.

did put bridle on thinking flexions instead, but she was too keen to go out in the field and play with charlie so wasn't going to pay me any mind. 

and, here's a blog to follow - current post, Rollkur 101


http://camera-obscura-billie.blogspot.com/2009/11/rollkur-101-what-you-need-to-know-to.html

clean molly

she hadn't rolled!  which was impressive .. it was the first thing charlie did this morning!

didn't do any work with her today.. think this is going to be a boring winter? ... and whether i do any this morning depends what time we get up and what the weather is like..

i know i said i have access to a nice arena.. getting there in the dark will be interesting, and i don't think i quite fancy it.

we'll see.  if all i do is a bit of groundwork every morning along the lane, that'll keep her ticking over!  or flexions in the stable, or something...

a recommendation for barefoot:

with thanks to trudi for pointing us at this page:

http://eurodressage.com/reports/shows/2009/09gdf/rep6.html

this quote in particular:

"The best way for a horse to go is barefoot! If your horses do not have
problematic hooves or do not change surface too much, Renirie professes
you should keep them barefoot. Rob, who said he became a farrier to
solve a hoof problem with one of his own horses, admitted that he keeps
his horses barefoot."

rain .. sheets of it...

went to morpeth this morning to watch pedro nevez clinic .. cold, wet ..came away earlier than i'd thought i would - enjoyed watching a garrocha lesson! ... 

we decided to get the horses in lunchtime as it was still teeming down and they were soaked...guess what?  it then stopped raining!  but a howling gale has got up.